Mama Lisa's Blog

International Music & Culture

Mama Lisa's Blog

A place for poems, songs, rhymes, and traditions from around the world for both kids and grown-ups to enjoy!

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Wet Walnuts Recipe

June 21st, 2009

It’s time to eat ice cream… with the warm weather here. Why not make your own wet walnuts as a topping when there’s a special occasion? I made some for tonight’s Father’s Day dessert: Wet Walnuts over Vanilla Ice Cream… My husband’s favorite!

I’m a strong believer in adapting recipes to your family’s tastes, so feel free to leave out the cinnamon from the recipe below, or change the recipe in other ways that suit you best. I’ll include notes at the end about possible adaptations. We love cinnamon and found the little hint of it to be a nice addition to the wet walnut recipe below.

Notes on adapting the recipe: The corn syrup is optional. It lightens the flavor of the maple syrup. I mixed pure maple syrup with "pancake" syrup. This gave it a lighter flavor too. Some people add in a little ginger powder for a different flavor. You could also use less syrup if you want to be conscious of calories. I’d say you could get away with using a total amount of 1/2 cup of syrup. In that case your walnuts won’t be as syrupy. However you adapt it, if you use these general guidelines above, it’s hard to go wrong with wet walnuts. You’re basically mixing walnuts and sweet syrup. What can be bad about that?!

(Slice apples (I use tart ones) somewhat thinly, don’t bother to peel if you don’t want to, toss in a skillet with half their weight in butter and half their weight in brown sugar (I use raw sugar), add some salt and possibly maple syrup if you like, add some cinnamon (lots of cinnamon!), cook over a low flame until the apples are all soft and limp. Eat over ice cream or oatmeal.)

I make my own maple syrup by using 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water. Boil until clear then an additional 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 2 tsp. maple flavoring. Add walnuts and bring back to a boil. The amount of nuts depends on how much syrup you want in your wet walnuts. I added 1 1/2 cup but for less syrup, you can add 2 cups of nuts.